Exeter Book Riddle 27

Last updated

Exeter Book Riddle 27 (according to the numbering of the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records) [1] is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. The riddle is almost universally solved as 'mead'. [2] [3]

Contents

Text

As edited by Krapp and Dobbie in the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records series, Riddle 27 runs:

Ic eom weorð werum, wide funden,
brungen of bearwum ond of burghleoþum,
of denum ond of dunum. Dæges mec wægun
feþre on lifte, feredon mid liste
under hrofes hleo. Hæleð mec siþþan
baþedan in dydene. Nu ic eom bindere
ond swingere, sona weorpere;
esne to eorþan hwilum ealdne ceorl.
Sona þæt on findeð, se þe mec fehð ongean
ond wið mægenþisan minre genæsteð,
þæt he hrycge sceal hrusan secan,
gif he unrædes ær ne geswiceð;
strengo bistolen, strong on spræce,
mægene binumen, nah his modes geweald,
fota ne folma. Frige hwæt ic hatte,
ðe on eorðan swa esnas binde
dole æfter dyntum be dæges leohte. [4]

I am valuable/useful to men, found widely, brought from groves and from mountain slopes, from valleys and from hills. By day, feathers carried me up high, took me skillfully under the shelter of a roof. A man then washed me in a container. Now I am a binder and a striker; I bring a slave to the ground, sometimes an old ceorl. Immediately he discovers, he who goes against me and contends against my strength, that he shall meet the ground with his back, unless he ceases from his folly early; deprived of his strength, loud of speech, his power bound, he has no control over his mind, his feet, or his hands. Ask what I am called, who thus binds slaves to the earth with blows, by the light of day. [5]

Interpretation

Until recently there has been little work on this riddle. However, in recent years commentary has emphasised how it undermines the association with mead in Old English heroic poetry with martial masculinity. [6] Other work has shown how the riddle not only elucidates Anglo-Saxons' relationships with bees, but has argued that the riddle enables us to chart the complex interrelations between humans and other ecological actors in the medieval past. [7]

Editions

Recordings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Saxon riddles</span> Part of Anglo-Saxon literature

Anglo-Saxon riddles are a significant genre of Anglo-Saxon literature. The riddle was a major, prestigious literary form in early medieval England, and riddles were written both in Latin and Old English verse. The pre-eminent composer of Latin riddles in early medieval England was Aldhelm, while the Old English verse riddles found in the tenth-century Exeter Book include some of the most famous Old English poems.

"Pharaoh" is the editorial name given to a fragmentary, eight-line Old English poem on folio 122r of the later tenth-century anthology known as the Exeter Book.

Exeter Book Riddle 83 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Its interpretation has occasioned a range of scholarly investigations, but it is taken to mean 'Ore/Gold/Metal', with most commentators preferring 'precious metal' or 'gold', and John D. Niles arguing specifically for the Old English solution ōra, meaning both 'ore' and 'a kind of silver coin'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exeter Book Riddles 68-69</span> Old English riddle

Exeter Book Riddles 68 and 69 are two of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Their interpretation has occasioned a range of scholarly investigations, but clearly has something to do with ice and one or both of the riddles are likely indeed to have the solution "ice".

Exeter Book Riddle 60 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. The riddle is usually solved as 'reed pen', although such pens were not in use in Anglo-Saxon times, rather being Roman technology; but it can also be understood as 'reed pipe'.

Exeter Book Riddle 47 is one of the most famous of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Its solution is 'book-worm' or 'moth'.

De creatura is an 83-line Latin polystichic poem by the seventh- to eighth-century Anglo-Saxon poet Aldhelm and an important text among Anglo-Saxon riddles. The poem seeks to express the wondrous diversity of creation, usually by drawing vivid contrasts between different natural phenomena, one of which is usually physically higher and more magnificent, and one of which is usually physically lower and more mundane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exeter Book Riddles</span> Old English word puzzles

The Exeter Book riddles are a fragmentary collection of verse riddles in Old English found in the later tenth-century anthology of Old English poetry known as the Exeter Book. Today standing at around ninety-four, the Exeter Book riddles account for almost all the riddles attested in Old English, and a major component of the otherwise mostly Latin corpus of riddles from early medieval England.

Exeter Book Riddle 30 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Since the suggestion of F. A. Blackburn in 1901, its solution has been agreed to be the Old English word bēam, understood both in its primary sense 'tree' but also in its secondary sense 'cross'.

Exeter Book Riddle 24 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. The riddle is one of a number to include runes as clues: they spell an anagram of the Old English word higoræ 'jay, magpie'. There has, therefore, been little debate about the solution.

Exeter Book Riddle 45 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Its solution is accepted to be 'dough'. However, the description evokes a penis becoming erect; as such, Riddle 45 is noted as one of a small group of Old English riddles that engage in sexual double entendre, and thus provides rare evidence for Anglo-Saxon attitudes to sexuality, and specifically for women taking the initiative in heterosexual sex.

Exeter Book Riddle 44 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Its solution is accepted to be 'key'. However, the description evokes a penis; as such, Riddle 44 is noted as one of a small group of Old English riddles that engage in sexual double entendre, and thus provides rare evidence for Anglo-Saxon attitudes to sexuality.

Exeter Book Riddle 25 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Suggested solutions have included Hemp, Leek, Onion, Rosehip, Mustard and Phallus, but the consensus is that the solution is Onion.

Exeter Book Riddle 65 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Suggested solutions have included Onion, Leek, and Chives, but the consensus is that the solution is Onion.

Exeter Book Riddle 33 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Its solution is accepted to be 'Iceberg'. The most extensive commentary on the riddle is by Corinne Dale, whose ecofeminist analysis of the riddles discusses how the iceberg is portrayed through metaphors of warrior violence but at the same time femininity.

Exeter Book Riddle 12 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Its solution is accepted to be 'ox/ox-hide'. The riddle has been described as 'rather a cause celebre in the realm of Old English poetic scholarship, thanks to the combination of its apparently sensational, and salacious, subject matter with critical issues of class, sex, and gender'. The riddle is also of interest because of its reference to an enslaved person, possibly ethnically British.

Exeter Book Riddle 61 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. The riddle is usually solved as 'shirt', 'mailcoat' or 'helmet'. It is noted as one of a number of Old English riddles with sexual connotations and as a source for gender-relations in early medieval England.

Exeter Book Riddle 7 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book, in this case on folio 103r. The solution is believed to be 'swan' and the riddle is noted as being one of the Old English riddles whose solution is most widely agreed on. The riddle can be understood in its manuscript context as part of a sequence of bird-riddles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exeter Book Riddle 26</span> Old English riddle

Exeter Book Riddle 26 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book.

Exeter Book Riddle 9 is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book, in this case on folio 103r–v. The solution is believed to be 'cuckoo'. The riddle can be understood in its manuscript context as part of a sequence of bird-riddles.

References

  1. ↑ George Philip Krapp and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie (eds), The Exeter Book, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936).
  2. ↑ Helen Price, 'A Hive of Activity: Realigning the Figure of the Bee in the Mead-Making network of Exeter Book Riddle 27', Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies (2015), 1-19 (p. 1); doi : 10.1057/pmed.2015.1.
  3. ↑ Wendy Hennequin, 'Commentary for Riddle 27' (8 September 2014), https://theriddleages.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/commentary-for-riddle-27-2/.
  4. ↑ George Philip Krapp and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie (eds), The Exeter Book, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), p. 194, accessed from http://ota.ox.ac.uk/desc/3009 Archived 2018-12-06 at the Wayback Machine .
  5. ↑ Helen Price, 'A Hive of Activity: Realigning the Figure of the Bee in the Mead-Making network of Exeter Book Riddle 27', Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies (2015), 1-19; doi:10.1057/pmed.2015.1.
  6. ↑ Wendy Hennequin, 'Commentary for Riddle 27' (8 September 2014), https://theriddleages.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/commentary-for-riddle-27-2/.
  7. ↑ Helen Price, 'A Hive of Activity: Realigning the Figure of the Bee in the Mead-Making network of Exeter Book Riddle 27', Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies (2015), 1-19; doi:10.1057/pmed.2015.1.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.